Posts that Mention the Name Hayley

A total of 4,143 babies were born in Malta in 2009. (In 2006, the number was 3,885.) These were the most popular baby names last year:

Boy Names

Luke/Luca (92 babies)

Matthew/Matthias/Matteo (84)

Jake (59)

Aiden (53)

Jaden/Jayden (51)

John/Giovanni/Jean (48)

Kaiden/Kayden (47)

Michael/Miguel/Mikele (46)

Nicholas/Nick (42)

Isaac/Izaak (39)

Nathan (38)

Liam/William (36)

Gabriel (36)

Benjamin/Ben (35)

Alexander/Alessandro/Alejandro (34)

Zachary/Zak (34)

James (33)

Daniel (33)

Denzel/Danzil (31)

Keiran (29)

Andre/Andrew/Andrea (26)

Sven (26)

Julian (25)

Kyle (24)

Joseph/Giuseppe/Beppe (24)

Girl Names

Maria/Mariah/Marie (82 babies)

Elena/Ylenia/Ella (79)

Christina/Kristina/Krista (63)

Eliza/Elizabeth/Lisa (52)

Amy/Aimee (49)

Julia/Gulia (45)

Maya/Maia (39)

Emma (39)

Martina (33)

Rihanna/Rhiana (32)

Jasmine/Yasmine (31)

Keira (29)

Mikela/Michaela (28)

Jade (27)

Hannah/Anna/Ann (26)

Nicole (25)

Mireille (25)

Hailey/Hayley (25)

Sarah/Sara (24)

Emilia (22)

Lea (22)

Thea (20)

Shania (18)

Katrina/Kate (18)

Amber (18)

Kailey/Kayleigh (18)

Faith (17)

Laura (17)

You’ll notice that Malta still lumps variants together. (They even lump non-variants like Elena and Ella together.) I’m not a big fan of this method because when groupings change from year to year, comparisons become impossible.

Malta also seems to have some issues with spelling. Aidan and Kieran became Aiden and Keiran between 2006 and 2009, for instance. And I’m sure “Gulia” was meant to be Giulia. (Though I do like the fact that there’s a “Julia/Gulia” grouping. Very Wedding Singer-esque.)

There’s nothing wrong with the list itself. But problems begin when you try to compare this list with the 2006 list.

For instance, in 2006, 49 boys were named Michael or Michele. A year later, there’s no way to tell if either of these names has became more or less popular — all we know is that 24 boys were named Michael, Michele Mikiel or Mikail, and that 29 boys were named Miguel specifically.

And that’s just the beginning. Between 2006 and 2007, Nicholas became Nicholas/Nikolai, Thomas became Thomas/Tommaso, and James became James/Jamie. Alexander became Alexander/Alessandro/Alejandro, while (accent-less) Andre became Andrew/André/Andrea. All of these odd groupings make it impossible to draw conclusions about how the popularity level of a specific name has changed over time.

I am also suspicious about spelling. Aidan (#6) and Jaydon (#19) from the 2006 list seemed to morph into Aiden (#6) and Jayden (#11) in 2007.

Finally — and this may be nit-picky — I dislike how Jeremy and Jerome were lumped together. The names may look alike, but they are unrelated.

Between 2006 and 2007, Julia became Julia/Giula, Nicole became Nicole/Nicola/Nicolette, Jasmin (sans e) became Jasmine/Yasmine, and Elisa/Eliza became Elisa/Eliza/Elisabeth. Michela went from being grouped with Michaela to being grouped with Michelle.